With temperatures in the 80’s and sun-drenched summer days, heating our homes this winter may be the farthest thing from most people’s minds. But the General Assembly has passed a bill I co-sponsored to provide home heating assistance this winter for Connecticut families making up to $94,000.
Whether you have oil, gas, or electric heat, you will likely face increased costs this winter. The story is all too familiar—energy prices remain high because of demand from India and China, constrained supply domestically and from OPEC, and speculation creating volatility in prices. What all this means is that people who are signing oil contracts for this winter are going to be paying $5 per gallon, and it will not be any better for gas and electric heat consumers.
We need relief for our middle class and seniors, and Connecticut state government is now offering it. Operation Fuel, which was traditionally a program for lower-income families, has now been expanded so that middle-class families and seniors can get rebates for your energy bills this winter.
Under the new law I co-sponsored, a family of four whose bank accounts and annual incomes total less than $94,000 can receive a one time benefit of up to $400 for heating their homes this winter. Lower income families would receive additional benefits.
How can we afford to give this relief? Connecticut has a surplus of about $75 million this year—which is a testament to Governor Jodi Rell’s management of our government. While neighboring states have billion dollar deficits, we have a small surplus. I am glad we are not spending this money on government programs, but rather giving it back to the middle class and seniors in the form of a rebate on home heating fuel.
If you are interested in applying for Operation Fuel assistance, please contact my office at (800) 842-1421. Applying will require an appointment with TEAM in Derby, the community organization that processes Operation Fuel requests for Shelton. After providing proof of eligibility, they will send you your rebate check. To get more information on the web, please visit http://www.senaterepublicans.ct.gov/energy
Long Term Solutions. However, we also need a comprehensive federal/state plan to reduce energy prices in the long term. All of us are being hit hard by energy prices, and while I agree with directing our surplus to the most needy, I think we need to take action to help the rest of us.
I have a three point plan to reduce the cost of energy: reducing energy taxes, increasing domestic supply of oil and gas, and expansion of cost-effective alternative energy.
First, I support suspending the 6% public utility tax on energy for this winter, and would pay for it through an early retirement plan for state workers. While a 6% savings might not solve the problem entirely, it will certainly save families hundreds of dollars this winter.
Second, I believe we need to increase the supply of oil (and natural gas) produced in the United States. Specifically, we need to find environmentally-friendly locations to drill for more oil and increase refinery capacity. While we do not want to drill for oil in environmentally sensitive areas, there are several large mid-ocean deposits of oil in the Gulf of Mexico and other areas that could be tapped with minimal disruption to the environment.
More important, however, is increasing refining capacity. We could drill for all the raw oil we want, but we need to refine it into useable gasoline and home heating oil. However, we have not built a new refinery in this country in decades—squeezing our domestic oil supply. Our refinery capacity is so tight that when one of them goes out, it sends prices soaring.
Third, we need to encourage people to adopt cost-effective alternative energy. Biodiesel, hybrid cars, solar power, hydrogen power, and tidal power all offer realistic power sources for Connecticut. None of them will fully replace oil and gas in the near term, but they will increase energy supply and help lower prices. Connecticut should adopt two types of tax credits to accelerate alternative energy. First, we need tax credits for research and development of new technologies. Second (and more importantly) we need to have tax credits for consumers to adopt new technology.
Energy costs is issue #1 to me right now. I am proud to have co-sponsored the bill to provide middle class home heating assistance. Please call my office at (800) 842-1421 if you are interested in more information. But I also believe we need also take action on my comprehensive plan to reduce energy prices in the long term, and I will be working to pass long-term legislation to increase our energy supply and lower costs.
Dan Debicella is the State Senator representing Shelton, Stratford, Monroe, and Seymour. If you have feedback for him or want to talk about the issues, he can be reached toll-free at (800) 842-1421 or by e-mail at dan.debicella@cga.ct.gov.
| 
